You can always count on the Android ROM development community to extend a device's relevance in the tech world. Take the OG Galaxy Tab for example - this little guy was the first Android tablet to hit the scene (running a phone-specific version of the OS, no less). It has been around for about a year and a half now, and there's no hope that it will ever officially be updated to anything past Gingerbread.

If there's one thing Android lovers can unite around, it's that we have the best community around. When CyanogenMod put out the call back in February asking for donations to get some new servers, the community responded enthusiastically. Now, the most popular third-party ROM developer is announcing that the servers are online and capable of building CM9 in nine minutes. Whoa.

This is where the magic happens.

The team says there's still some work to be done before these babies are cranking, but once they've set up schedulers to automate the builds, the new servers will be able to put together bleeding edge ROMs for your device faster than you can say "Holy crap, that was really friggin' fast."

For those who are curious (and aren't we all?) those are three Dell R610s in the photo of the CM servers above.

Getting CyanogenMod builds onto an Android device has always been easy as pie, but who is going to say no to yet another, even simpler method? While redesigning the CyanogenMod Downloads page, the CM team recently added a really subtle ability to send downloads straight from the web right into ROM Manager - all with just one click, a-la Chrome to phone or Amazon's 1-click purchasing.

In fact, the change to the site was so subtle that it went unnoticed by us for a week until Koush posted this video to his YouTube account:

Two days ago, we showed you the prototype would-be logo that was to become the representation of CyanogenMod moving forward. Today, after a few tweaks to the design, the new mascot has been unveiled. Meet Cid, the new face of Cyanogenmod:

Cid, an acronym for CyanogenMod ID, is only a slight variation of the previous prototype, as it combines the look of both previously suggested mascots. The final design is more "adult-like" in height than the original design, and it has gained an all new facial expression.

CyanogenMod (CM) has long been the modding community's custom ROM of choice, and for good reason: it takes the goodness that is basic Android (AOSP) and adds a hearty dose of all-around improvement. The list of devices supported by CM is quite a long and impressive one (truth be told, they do a better job of supporting devices than the manufacturers do), and last night, cutting-edge nightly CM9 releases dropped for the Sony Xperia Arc (Anzu) and Xperia Neo (Hallon).

In a post to the official CyanogenMod blog today, arcee announced that the first CM7.2 release candidate, based on Android 2.3.7, is ready to go for 70 devices. The entry also notes that 7.2 brings with it a few backported features and fixes from Android Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as a few completely new features. Those interested can see a complete change log here.

Since 7.2 is still in its release candidate stage, arcee notes that users are welcomed to report any bugs they encounter while running RC1:

As usual, you can submit bug reports on these builds: if you find anything broken in your device while running CM7.2-RC1, (as downloaded from our mirrors or ROM Manager!

Yesterday, a great thread titled Share One Awesome Tip or Trick You Do With Your Android Phone, I'll Start... popped up on Reddit, and thinking I would be already aware of all the little tricks, I almost ignored it. By the end of the day, seeing over 100 comments piqued my curiosity, so I checked it out.

To my dismay, among all the great tips, I found one, courtesy of kennansoft, that somehow evaded me all along - and it was available in my own stock Epic 4G Touch Galaxy S II ROM of all things.

Just under a week after receiving almost unprecedented support from the Android community to fund the purchase of new build servers, the CM team has begun pumping out CM9 nightlies for a handful of devices. There's no question - the CM team is moving quickly, and the release of so many nightlies in such a short time span is exciting, to say the least.

Koushik Dutta, in a Google+ post earlier this evening, expressed appreciation, confirming that CyanogenMod "was able to purchase 3 top of the line, ridiculously geared, build servers," which will soon have an automatic build schedule.

With over a million unique users, there's a good chance that some of you are running CyanogenMod right now. And if you've been running experimental nightly builds, you may have noticed that they've been getting updated more and more sporadically. According to a post at the CyanogenMod blog today, the problem will only get worse as CM9 and CM7.2 get closer to an official release.

The post explains that in order to get nightly builds released more frequently, the CyanogenMod team needs to purchase new servers, which aren't cheap.

CyanogenMod has been growing lately. The AOSP-based custom ROM reached one million unique installs last month, and dozens of devices are currently supported, including a wide array of LG devices. It's time to welcome a new member of that family: the T-Mobile LG myTouch.

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.